Brown Rats need specific sites? Maybe that should read Black Rat?
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John's Mammals 2009 (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Farnboro John
- Start date
Brown Rats need specific sites? Maybe that should read Black Rat?
Farnboro John
Well-known member
Not really but I had managed to get through over two months without seeing one: and they do seem to skulk about in dark corners necessitating flash photography as a rule.
Black Rat in UK is a real toughie since the NT disposed of the Lundy colony - a shocking reduction in biodiversity and a loss to our national heritage (no Black Rat, no Black Death: where's the fun in that, one of the few history lessons I remember!)
John
Farnboro John
Well-known member
Got out for a look at the Greywell far hedge yesterday evening: with the cold north wind there wasn't any small mammal action but a yearling Roe Deer and a few Rabbits were feeding along the owl hedge and in quick succession the local pair of Buzzards, a female Sparrowhawk and a male Kestrel perched up to give good bins views.
I drove a few back roads on the way home and had a good flight view of a Tawny Owl along the minor road paralleling the M3 by Fleet services (Muntjac sometimes feed on the verges there but not last night), finishing off with a Roe buck and doe making up to each other in the riding school fields just outside Fleet.
Shan't get out tonight and tomorrow its hi ho for Scotland!
John
I drove a few back roads on the way home and had a good flight view of a Tawny Owl along the minor road paralleling the M3 by Fleet services (Muntjac sometimes feed on the verges there but not last night), finishing off with a Roe buck and doe making up to each other in the riding school fields just outside Fleet.
Shan't get out tonight and tomorrow its hi ho for Scotland!
John
Farnboro John
Well-known member
Had a fantastic time in Scotland but too busy today to do it justice. Got home last night and within a few minutes a shriek from Marion as a mouse peered round a door at her.
Trip traps are down, results tomorrow (I fervently hope!)
John
Trip traps are down, results tomorrow (I fervently hope!)
John
Farnboro John
Well-known member
Mouse not seen, heard or trapped so maybe our reappearance scared it off.
Back to the Scottish expedition.
Day One - Friday 27 March. A latish decision to get ahead of the pack saw us leave from work at lunchtime, heading for in-laws in Cumbria to overnight there. A Grey Squirrel as I drove from my office to pick up Maz from the hospital (work not treatment) kicked the mammals off, and 6 Red Kites around Stokenchurch, 3 Buzzards and a Kestrel got the raptors off the ground.
Traffic was grim from Staffordshire to Lancaster.
Saturday 28 March
An early start got us past Glasgow before traffic heated up, with a Black Rabbit on the verge of the M6 in the Cumbrian fells. We then had quite a decent drive up into the Highlands. Overnight snow had settled down to about 1500 feet, looking very impressive and picking out the deeper gullies in Glencoe's massive crags for us. Lunch at the Clachaig Inn is recommended, not too cheap and beware of the portion size - we staggered out after two courses loosening belts!
We shopped and filled the car up at Fort William, knocking off the first Hooded Crows of the trip before crossing the Corran ferry and heading over Glen Tarbert into Ardnamurchan. We stopped again at Strontian for Maz to buy the couple of items we had forgotten. I was allowed to stay out and play, and promptly found a male Golden Eagle displaying in sunshine up towards Ariundle NNR.
Not long after that we were installed in our cabin at Resipole Farm. We have camped there before, it also takes caravans, but this was our first time with four walls and a roof and it was very comfortable. Two bedrooms (double and twin), kitchen/diner/lounge, bathroom with shower. The cabin was right next to the oakwoods that lead back up onto the hills from the campsite and we promptly boiled up eggs to put out for Pine Martens (I wanted to try something other than bread and jam).
Realistically it would take a while for patrolling martens to find the bait so we had a night drive since the weather was fine. Marion found an Otter at dusk in the bay by the Cala Darach ex-B&B, having already got Eider and Oystercatcher over me on the way up. We watched that till it was too dark to see then went spotlighting. We got no result in about an hour apart from a Roe buck by the road above Loch Mudle and four or five Red Deer.
We retired to the Salen Hotel for a swift half before returning to base. Tawny Owls were calling outside the pub, along with the deeper call of a Long-eared Owl. At the cabin the eggs were untouched but I surprised a domestic cat, black headed, backed and tailed with a white belly and socks, passing through.
I took a picture with flash partly in the hope of scaring it off: I had no plans to share my bait with a pet moggy. It ran away into the woods. Checking the picture I found the harsh light of the speedlite had picked out what eyesight had not: under the plain blackish brown of the tail clear even rings and a big dark tip were present in jet black. It wasn't a Wildcat but a maternal ancestor had met one in a deep and meaningful way - which of course is the core of the Wildcat problem.
Sunday 29 March
In the morning it was fine but windy and the eggs were untouched.
We had a wander round Ariundle in the morning, finding Pine Marten scat on the path (photographed) and a Stoat scat (didn't bother). The weather was going off by lunchtime so we had a look at the hide at Aird Arigh, where five Common Seals seemed settled on the weed-covered rocks but suddenly spooked at something unseen, dived headlong into the water and vanished. The following weekend a Countryfile report suggested strongly this is due to persecution both legal and illegal but all uncontrolled and now affecting numbers, from salmon farmers. After several years of observing seals at this site and others in the Ardnamurchan region I confirm their behaviour has changed considerably in what appears to be a response to hunting. I guess its time for seal friendly salmon to be demanded.
A winter plumaged Red-throated Diver followed our shore under the hide allowing pix. As we returned to the car the weather took a terminal nose-dive and we knocked off for the day. Adding fresh eggs didn't get us any martens although something had them. I pulled back a curtain to establish this and the black and white cat again ran off. Suspicious that it was the culprit I resolved to go the jam butty route the following night. That should fox the cat.
Monday 30 March
Drizzle in the morning, Maz not interested in going out so I went for a wander alone, finding a Crossbill at Ariundle, a Greenshank at Strontian and not much else. The weather improved in the afternoon, so early evening I went for a walk to see if Resipole's resident Otter of the previous year was still about.
It was: I found the big dog Otter fishing in the loch about a quarter of a mile West of the site, near where the road leaps away from the coast up the hill. He followed what seemed to be a regular patrol line East past me and on past the site. I got a couple of blip shots in rubbish light and decided he would get more attention later in the week.
It still wasn't good enough for a night drive (frustrating, but if the weather is off there is no point, you just waste petrol and optimism) so we waited for Pine Martens again without success. Natterer's Bats and Pip sps up and down the woodland fringe were some compensation.
Tuesday 31 March
Regardless of the weather today I intended to seawatch from the Point of Ardnamurchan because it was still March and I wanted Manx Shearwater for a March tick. The gods smiled, it was windy but dry and I saw two. Disappointingly the cafe was shut: opens April - i.e. tomorrow. We suffered from this "opens tomorrow" all week - essentially Scotland is shut till Easter. If you are self-contained this makes it a good time to go but it can limit your tea and loo options.
Some distant Black Guillemots, a string of Razorbills (not a good phrase is it?) a Kittiwake and a Black-throated Diver padded out the seawatch, then we went in search of about a hundred Red Deer we had so far failed to spot. We found fifty odd females and yearlings along the Ockle road, some close enough for pix. Nice. No stags though, but they tend to go up the hills during the day and then give you heart attacks on the roads at night.
From there we headed for the Glenmore Wildlife Centre, but were distracted by birders looking up at the Camas nan Geall car park on the way. Stopping, we found they were looking for (not at) Golden Eagle, which I quickly found drifting from Ben Hiant across towards us. That I thought unusual, normally they stay well away from the road and this one took up a position hanging on the wind maybe a thousand feet above us and near the scree slopes to our right.
It was probably explained by the two barn doors that rose up from Camas nan Geall itself, setting all the gulls screaming and most of the birders too. A wing-tagged adult and an untagged first winter White-tailed Eagle circled up and drifted right over our heads, where the higher young bird dived on the other, engaged in a near talong-grapple with the adult fully inverted, then circled a few times before gliding East along the coast. A minute or two later the first winter came back over us even lower, allowing me even better pix than the ones I had been banging off.
There was some doubt in the group about just how many eagles of which species we had been watching and although I had been quite sure I now began to have doubts, so we drove down to the Wildlife Centre for a cup of tea and a second opinion, which thankfully agreed with my own and offered the insight that the untagged young bird could have been either Mara or Briagh (excuse spelling, done phonetically) satellite tagged the previous year.
This gave us the chance to say hello to Ritchie, who had kindly asked around the locals for any Wildcat news for me in advance of our arrival (little) and chat generally about our plans for the week.
More later...
John
Back to the Scottish expedition.
Day One - Friday 27 March. A latish decision to get ahead of the pack saw us leave from work at lunchtime, heading for in-laws in Cumbria to overnight there. A Grey Squirrel as I drove from my office to pick up Maz from the hospital (work not treatment) kicked the mammals off, and 6 Red Kites around Stokenchurch, 3 Buzzards and a Kestrel got the raptors off the ground.
Traffic was grim from Staffordshire to Lancaster.
Saturday 28 March
An early start got us past Glasgow before traffic heated up, with a Black Rabbit on the verge of the M6 in the Cumbrian fells. We then had quite a decent drive up into the Highlands. Overnight snow had settled down to about 1500 feet, looking very impressive and picking out the deeper gullies in Glencoe's massive crags for us. Lunch at the Clachaig Inn is recommended, not too cheap and beware of the portion size - we staggered out after two courses loosening belts!
We shopped and filled the car up at Fort William, knocking off the first Hooded Crows of the trip before crossing the Corran ferry and heading over Glen Tarbert into Ardnamurchan. We stopped again at Strontian for Maz to buy the couple of items we had forgotten. I was allowed to stay out and play, and promptly found a male Golden Eagle displaying in sunshine up towards Ariundle NNR.
Not long after that we were installed in our cabin at Resipole Farm. We have camped there before, it also takes caravans, but this was our first time with four walls and a roof and it was very comfortable. Two bedrooms (double and twin), kitchen/diner/lounge, bathroom with shower. The cabin was right next to the oakwoods that lead back up onto the hills from the campsite and we promptly boiled up eggs to put out for Pine Martens (I wanted to try something other than bread and jam).
Realistically it would take a while for patrolling martens to find the bait so we had a night drive since the weather was fine. Marion found an Otter at dusk in the bay by the Cala Darach ex-B&B, having already got Eider and Oystercatcher over me on the way up. We watched that till it was too dark to see then went spotlighting. We got no result in about an hour apart from a Roe buck by the road above Loch Mudle and four or five Red Deer.
We retired to the Salen Hotel for a swift half before returning to base. Tawny Owls were calling outside the pub, along with the deeper call of a Long-eared Owl. At the cabin the eggs were untouched but I surprised a domestic cat, black headed, backed and tailed with a white belly and socks, passing through.
I took a picture with flash partly in the hope of scaring it off: I had no plans to share my bait with a pet moggy. It ran away into the woods. Checking the picture I found the harsh light of the speedlite had picked out what eyesight had not: under the plain blackish brown of the tail clear even rings and a big dark tip were present in jet black. It wasn't a Wildcat but a maternal ancestor had met one in a deep and meaningful way - which of course is the core of the Wildcat problem.
Sunday 29 March
In the morning it was fine but windy and the eggs were untouched.
We had a wander round Ariundle in the morning, finding Pine Marten scat on the path (photographed) and a Stoat scat (didn't bother). The weather was going off by lunchtime so we had a look at the hide at Aird Arigh, where five Common Seals seemed settled on the weed-covered rocks but suddenly spooked at something unseen, dived headlong into the water and vanished. The following weekend a Countryfile report suggested strongly this is due to persecution both legal and illegal but all uncontrolled and now affecting numbers, from salmon farmers. After several years of observing seals at this site and others in the Ardnamurchan region I confirm their behaviour has changed considerably in what appears to be a response to hunting. I guess its time for seal friendly salmon to be demanded.
A winter plumaged Red-throated Diver followed our shore under the hide allowing pix. As we returned to the car the weather took a terminal nose-dive and we knocked off for the day. Adding fresh eggs didn't get us any martens although something had them. I pulled back a curtain to establish this and the black and white cat again ran off. Suspicious that it was the culprit I resolved to go the jam butty route the following night. That should fox the cat.
Monday 30 March
Drizzle in the morning, Maz not interested in going out so I went for a wander alone, finding a Crossbill at Ariundle, a Greenshank at Strontian and not much else. The weather improved in the afternoon, so early evening I went for a walk to see if Resipole's resident Otter of the previous year was still about.
It was: I found the big dog Otter fishing in the loch about a quarter of a mile West of the site, near where the road leaps away from the coast up the hill. He followed what seemed to be a regular patrol line East past me and on past the site. I got a couple of blip shots in rubbish light and decided he would get more attention later in the week.
It still wasn't good enough for a night drive (frustrating, but if the weather is off there is no point, you just waste petrol and optimism) so we waited for Pine Martens again without success. Natterer's Bats and Pip sps up and down the woodland fringe were some compensation.
Tuesday 31 March
Regardless of the weather today I intended to seawatch from the Point of Ardnamurchan because it was still March and I wanted Manx Shearwater for a March tick. The gods smiled, it was windy but dry and I saw two. Disappointingly the cafe was shut: opens April - i.e. tomorrow. We suffered from this "opens tomorrow" all week - essentially Scotland is shut till Easter. If you are self-contained this makes it a good time to go but it can limit your tea and loo options.
Some distant Black Guillemots, a string of Razorbills (not a good phrase is it?) a Kittiwake and a Black-throated Diver padded out the seawatch, then we went in search of about a hundred Red Deer we had so far failed to spot. We found fifty odd females and yearlings along the Ockle road, some close enough for pix. Nice. No stags though, but they tend to go up the hills during the day and then give you heart attacks on the roads at night.
From there we headed for the Glenmore Wildlife Centre, but were distracted by birders looking up at the Camas nan Geall car park on the way. Stopping, we found they were looking for (not at) Golden Eagle, which I quickly found drifting from Ben Hiant across towards us. That I thought unusual, normally they stay well away from the road and this one took up a position hanging on the wind maybe a thousand feet above us and near the scree slopes to our right.
It was probably explained by the two barn doors that rose up from Camas nan Geall itself, setting all the gulls screaming and most of the birders too. A wing-tagged adult and an untagged first winter White-tailed Eagle circled up and drifted right over our heads, where the higher young bird dived on the other, engaged in a near talong-grapple with the adult fully inverted, then circled a few times before gliding East along the coast. A minute or two later the first winter came back over us even lower, allowing me even better pix than the ones I had been banging off.
There was some doubt in the group about just how many eagles of which species we had been watching and although I had been quite sure I now began to have doubts, so we drove down to the Wildlife Centre for a cup of tea and a second opinion, which thankfully agreed with my own and offered the insight that the untagged young bird could have been either Mara or Briagh (excuse spelling, done phonetically) satellite tagged the previous year.
This gave us the chance to say hello to Ritchie, who had kindly asked around the locals for any Wildcat news for me in advance of our arrival (little) and chat generally about our plans for the week.
More later...
John
Last edited:
Tree Sparrow
Well-known member
Farnboro John
Well-known member
Thanks very much!
Still Tuesday 31 March
The Glenmore Wildlife Centre is a very useful resource where the staff and Ritchie in particular will give you all the help and current information on whereabouts of animals and birds that they have. Ritchie confirmed to me that he is happy to act a a bank for reports as well, so if you are going to Ardnamurchan, I suggest the following strategy: Check with him in advance; drop in as soon after arrival as convenient to pick up latest and say hallo; make sure you at least drop in once more to pass on any news of your own and get any updates. With a limited supply of tearooms up and down the coast you may find it a useful stop anyway.
Our plan for the evening was dinner earlyish at the Salen Hotel, then another look for the Cala Darach Otter and spotlighting after dark. The first setback after I had put Pine Marten bait out was that this was the last Tuesday of the winter season and the Salen was residents only on Tuesday night - aargh!
Incidentally the method I used to avoid the old complaint that a Pine Marten will simply run off with a butty was to make up a round of jam and peanut butter sandwich, then cut it down into 20 small squares. This makes the marten do one at a time either by repeated trips in and out to eat in cover or by going around in full view hoovering things up. I was baiting a grass bank about ten feet from our bedroom window, illuminated by the light outside the front door with internal lights off so we remained in deep shadow.
We drove rather faster than planned round to Kilchoan but were distracted by a collection of Red Deer stags by the road and arrived at the Kilchoan House Hotel nominally outside the food ordering window, which closed at 2000 hours. Luckily at 2010 they were still happy to feed us. Once fed we returned slowly and with close attention to stuff caught in the headlights, up past Loch Mudle (more Red Deer and the Roe buck from the other night in exactly the same place but this time with his doe) to The Basin.
An hour of spotlighting got us precisely nothing at all, and I was keen to catch up with whatever was woofing down our bait at home, so off we set again. As we reached a tightish bend between Cala Darach and the Glenmore Wildlife Centre Maz shrieked "Stop, stop - cat!" I stopped as quickly as I could and backed up but saw nothing. Maz, bless her heart, tried very hard to say she hadn't had an actual Wildcat because she didn't want me to be gutted, but her innate honesty eventually made her admit she had seen a very large striped cat with a big facial ruff (sounds like a male) and got the tail rings as it whipped round off the road. Bushes come right to the verge there so there was no hope at all of relocating it.
On we went with Marion apologising to me every half mile. Several Natterer's flicked in and out of the headlights. Just before we reached Resipole Farm we found a Tawny Owl hunting from the roadside telephone wires.
I stayed up watching the bait, determined to salvage something from the night, but Marion spotted our first Pine Marten of the trip while I was getting a scotch. It was quite small and we assumed it was a female. I tiptoed into the bedroom and began rather incompetently taking pictures through the glass - I wasn't confident enough to have it open at that point - and had the usual troubles with reflection, not to mention the marten being a bit skittish. It was still in its winter coat, thick and chestnut with a darker, very bushy tail and thick pale underfur showing through the chestnut.
It took each bit of sarnie back under the brambles to eat so I only had its short intervening visits to get my pix. By the time it bounded away over the ditch and up the slope under the trees I had about 5 shots of which only one was sharpish. Nevertheless I was ecstatic to be off the mark with a top target species. A large celebratory Highland Park went down before crashing at about 0130.
Wednesday 1 April
As well as eggs and sarnies for martens, I had been putting carrot peelings down by the front drystone wall of the site in the hope of enticing the Field Voles that live in the base of the wall out for the camera. This was not working, so I added my usual rodent mix of bird seed and sultanas. With a fine and less windy day in prospect I took my camera down to stake some baited vole holes out for the morning.
After a long wait (I am used to promiscuous Bank Voles, not reclusive Field Voles) I saw a small grey shape dart out, grab a bit of crushed maize and whip back inside its hole. The second time it did so, I got a shot, and initially thought I had scored on Field Vole. However, a close look a the picture left me wondering where the ears were, and then I noticed a long pointy snout. Not a vole - a Common Shrew. I suppose I shouldn't have been disappointed but I got a really good shrew shot a few weeks ago.
Losing some concentration I scanned the loch and ridges, and was lucky enough to spot a male Hen Harrier rocking gently on the wind up on the open moorland above the woods behind the campsite. That was about the high spot of the day, the low spot being filling up at Strontian at £1.12 per litre of unleaded.
We had dinner at the Salen Hotel, seeing two Tawny Owls on the way there: one came up off the ground presumably from a kill, the other was on wires. Outside the pub more Tawnies were calling as well as the LEO again. After dinner we set off on another night drive and as we round the corner by the Camas nan Geall car park, a Barn Owl came off the slope just above us and made us both jump. That however was the only excitement of the drive, and we were back home by 2330 to try to nail the Pine Marten again.
This time I had the window wide open. I was using my 28-200 zoom rather than the big lens as there was just no need for anything more: most of the shots I got were on about 100mm of zoom. We hadn't been waiting long when a big burly male Pine Marten came out from underneath the cabin and stopped in the deep shade thrown by the front door eaves. He stood up on his hind legs and peered in at us, clearly well aware we were there. Eventually he decided we weren't a threat and came out into the light with that rocking-horse gait that mustelids use.
A flash of the camera and he was back under the cabin with a sarnie, but before long he came back out and repeated the sitting up peer at us before moving out for more food. The flash again made him zip under the cabin but he gradually became more confident and I was getting some good stuff.
Then another one turned up and after a few seconds of frozen tableau with two male Pine Martens on view there was a snarl and two chestnut streaks shot all over the place, boing boing boing. They both shot under the cabin - right under our feet! - and a snarling, yowling, snapping battle royal ensued with the martens bouncing off the cabin supports and the floor beneath us.
Marion was quickly alarmed ("they're not going to come in here are they?") and eventually stamped her foot hard on the floor to quieten them. Engaged in a life or death struggle the two martens completely ignored her and the noise of battle continued for a minute or so. Maz was hysterical and I was in hysterics. The winner swaggered out from underneath the cabin with fur all fluffed out and Rikki-tikki-tavi bottlebrush tail up, and polished off most of the remaining sandwiches. He seemed to have a bite on his tail that might have removed some fur but not cut him.
He then bounded away into the darkness and the loser, who had continued to snarl and yowl from under the cabin, came out cautiously, had a good sniff round that got him the last remaining bits of food, and also hopped over the ditch and away.
Early Grey, Mottled Grey and Early Tooth-striped moths round the outside light finished off a hell of a night.
To be continued.....
John
Still Tuesday 31 March
The Glenmore Wildlife Centre is a very useful resource where the staff and Ritchie in particular will give you all the help and current information on whereabouts of animals and birds that they have. Ritchie confirmed to me that he is happy to act a a bank for reports as well, so if you are going to Ardnamurchan, I suggest the following strategy: Check with him in advance; drop in as soon after arrival as convenient to pick up latest and say hallo; make sure you at least drop in once more to pass on any news of your own and get any updates. With a limited supply of tearooms up and down the coast you may find it a useful stop anyway.
Our plan for the evening was dinner earlyish at the Salen Hotel, then another look for the Cala Darach Otter and spotlighting after dark. The first setback after I had put Pine Marten bait out was that this was the last Tuesday of the winter season and the Salen was residents only on Tuesday night - aargh!
Incidentally the method I used to avoid the old complaint that a Pine Marten will simply run off with a butty was to make up a round of jam and peanut butter sandwich, then cut it down into 20 small squares. This makes the marten do one at a time either by repeated trips in and out to eat in cover or by going around in full view hoovering things up. I was baiting a grass bank about ten feet from our bedroom window, illuminated by the light outside the front door with internal lights off so we remained in deep shadow.
We drove rather faster than planned round to Kilchoan but were distracted by a collection of Red Deer stags by the road and arrived at the Kilchoan House Hotel nominally outside the food ordering window, which closed at 2000 hours. Luckily at 2010 they were still happy to feed us. Once fed we returned slowly and with close attention to stuff caught in the headlights, up past Loch Mudle (more Red Deer and the Roe buck from the other night in exactly the same place but this time with his doe) to The Basin.
An hour of spotlighting got us precisely nothing at all, and I was keen to catch up with whatever was woofing down our bait at home, so off we set again. As we reached a tightish bend between Cala Darach and the Glenmore Wildlife Centre Maz shrieked "Stop, stop - cat!" I stopped as quickly as I could and backed up but saw nothing. Maz, bless her heart, tried very hard to say she hadn't had an actual Wildcat because she didn't want me to be gutted, but her innate honesty eventually made her admit she had seen a very large striped cat with a big facial ruff (sounds like a male) and got the tail rings as it whipped round off the road. Bushes come right to the verge there so there was no hope at all of relocating it.
On we went with Marion apologising to me every half mile. Several Natterer's flicked in and out of the headlights. Just before we reached Resipole Farm we found a Tawny Owl hunting from the roadside telephone wires.
I stayed up watching the bait, determined to salvage something from the night, but Marion spotted our first Pine Marten of the trip while I was getting a scotch. It was quite small and we assumed it was a female. I tiptoed into the bedroom and began rather incompetently taking pictures through the glass - I wasn't confident enough to have it open at that point - and had the usual troubles with reflection, not to mention the marten being a bit skittish. It was still in its winter coat, thick and chestnut with a darker, very bushy tail and thick pale underfur showing through the chestnut.
It took each bit of sarnie back under the brambles to eat so I only had its short intervening visits to get my pix. By the time it bounded away over the ditch and up the slope under the trees I had about 5 shots of which only one was sharpish. Nevertheless I was ecstatic to be off the mark with a top target species. A large celebratory Highland Park went down before crashing at about 0130.
Wednesday 1 April
As well as eggs and sarnies for martens, I had been putting carrot peelings down by the front drystone wall of the site in the hope of enticing the Field Voles that live in the base of the wall out for the camera. This was not working, so I added my usual rodent mix of bird seed and sultanas. With a fine and less windy day in prospect I took my camera down to stake some baited vole holes out for the morning.
After a long wait (I am used to promiscuous Bank Voles, not reclusive Field Voles) I saw a small grey shape dart out, grab a bit of crushed maize and whip back inside its hole. The second time it did so, I got a shot, and initially thought I had scored on Field Vole. However, a close look a the picture left me wondering where the ears were, and then I noticed a long pointy snout. Not a vole - a Common Shrew. I suppose I shouldn't have been disappointed but I got a really good shrew shot a few weeks ago.
Losing some concentration I scanned the loch and ridges, and was lucky enough to spot a male Hen Harrier rocking gently on the wind up on the open moorland above the woods behind the campsite. That was about the high spot of the day, the low spot being filling up at Strontian at £1.12 per litre of unleaded.
We had dinner at the Salen Hotel, seeing two Tawny Owls on the way there: one came up off the ground presumably from a kill, the other was on wires. Outside the pub more Tawnies were calling as well as the LEO again. After dinner we set off on another night drive and as we round the corner by the Camas nan Geall car park, a Barn Owl came off the slope just above us and made us both jump. That however was the only excitement of the drive, and we were back home by 2330 to try to nail the Pine Marten again.
This time I had the window wide open. I was using my 28-200 zoom rather than the big lens as there was just no need for anything more: most of the shots I got were on about 100mm of zoom. We hadn't been waiting long when a big burly male Pine Marten came out from underneath the cabin and stopped in the deep shade thrown by the front door eaves. He stood up on his hind legs and peered in at us, clearly well aware we were there. Eventually he decided we weren't a threat and came out into the light with that rocking-horse gait that mustelids use.
A flash of the camera and he was back under the cabin with a sarnie, but before long he came back out and repeated the sitting up peer at us before moving out for more food. The flash again made him zip under the cabin but he gradually became more confident and I was getting some good stuff.
Then another one turned up and after a few seconds of frozen tableau with two male Pine Martens on view there was a snarl and two chestnut streaks shot all over the place, boing boing boing. They both shot under the cabin - right under our feet! - and a snarling, yowling, snapping battle royal ensued with the martens bouncing off the cabin supports and the floor beneath us.
Marion was quickly alarmed ("they're not going to come in here are they?") and eventually stamped her foot hard on the floor to quieten them. Engaged in a life or death struggle the two martens completely ignored her and the noise of battle continued for a minute or so. Maz was hysterical and I was in hysterics. The winner swaggered out from underneath the cabin with fur all fluffed out and Rikki-tikki-tavi bottlebrush tail up, and polished off most of the remaining sandwiches. He seemed to have a bite on his tail that might have removed some fur but not cut him.
He then bounded away into the darkness and the loser, who had continued to snarl and yowl from under the cabin, came out cautiously, had a good sniff round that got him the last remaining bits of food, and also hopped over the ditch and away.
Early Grey, Mottled Grey and Early Tooth-striped moths round the outside light finished off a hell of a night.
To be continued.....
John
edenwatcher
Well-known member
Great stuff John.
Rob
Rob
Tree Sparrow
Well-known member
I think this was even better than the first instalment.
I'm so hoping that you'll say you got to see a wildcat eventually. You have a lovely wife not to rub it in. My OH would have gone on and on about it :C.
At least you could fill your car up. I've been to Ardnamurchan twice, the first time was when we had the fuel blockades and what little fuel they had up there they would only sell to locals..........which is fair enough, but it did curtail the amount of driving we could do. Unfortunately tankers arrived by the end of the week so we weren't "forced" to stay for longer. My second visit was during foot and mouth but luckily we were staying on Shona and being a small island we were able to walk where we liked.
Much as I love seeing Pine Martens I'm not sure I'd enjoy having them fighting underneath where I was staying. Made excellent reading though :eek!:.
TS
I'm so hoping that you'll say you got to see a wildcat eventually. You have a lovely wife not to rub it in. My OH would have gone on and on about it :C.
At least you could fill your car up. I've been to Ardnamurchan twice, the first time was when we had the fuel blockades and what little fuel they had up there they would only sell to locals..........which is fair enough, but it did curtail the amount of driving we could do. Unfortunately tankers arrived by the end of the week so we weren't "forced" to stay for longer. My second visit was during foot and mouth but luckily we were staying on Shona and being a small island we were able to walk where we liked.
Much as I love seeing Pine Martens I'm not sure I'd enjoy having them fighting underneath where I was staying. Made excellent reading though :eek!:.
TS
Farnboro John
Well-known member
Onward and upward...
Thursday 2 April
We had a number of reasons for popping over to Tobermory, so drove round to Kilchoan pier and arrived just as the ferry was docking. We parked quickly, grabbed what we thought we needed for the day (full Arctic gear for the ferry for a start) and went on board. It was sunny but a chilly wind ruled out sunbathing on the upper deck.
I didn't see all that many seabirds on the crossing, a Great Northern Diver being the pick of the bunch, but almost as soon as we arrived in Tobermory I found a first winter Iceland Gull loafing near a rocky breakwater. In the bright conditions my camera seemed to struggle but changing modes eventually cured that and I got some reasonable shots of it.
I found a second bird wheeling about with local Herring Gulls but couldn't quite nail it to species. It seemed broader winged and slightly heavier billed but the pattern wasn't clear cut as it would be on a Glaucous. It never came close and only appeared distantly at widely spaced intervals. It went down as either/or and two days later someone else reported two first winter Icelands.
Half of Tobermory was shut, wet paint signs abounded and the pottery no longer did the delightful, characterful cartoon-style wildcats Maz and I had been treating ourselves to after each sighting. Tracking down lunch involved enough patrolling up and down to give us a huge appetite - but not huge enough to pay £7.50 for pizza and chips.
In the end scallops and scampi from the pub near the Sea Life Surveys office were much appreciated. A cup of tea was also elusive, though we could probably have got one reasonably from the chip van by the pier.
Returning on the ferry we had several distant Black Guillemots but little else of note.
I had a second go at the Resipole Otter and thought I had him bang to rights when I picked him up working his way along towards me, with time to get down to a clump of boulders near the shore line for cover. Unfortunately the water was heavily ruffled by wind and he managed to slip past me unseen.
I picked him up again scanning widely and followed him back towards the camp site. He moved well out into the loch where he caught a fish, which was big enough that he brought it ashore to eat, right outside the site where the burn runs into the sea loch. I got a couple of shots of him, more silhouette than picture but quite distinctively an Otter.
Soon it was dark enough to be on our way not to the Basin, but the other way down past Strontian. For our last night's spotlighting I had decided to work the clear-felled slopes and wide heather moors of Glen Tarbert rather than leg it all the way to Cama nan Geall. We had a Tawny Owl glide across the road on the way, then it took me a couple of runs to find the car park I planned to spotlight from, but at last I was out fo the door and into action.
I found predator eyeshine up the slope immediately, but it ducked and the light wobbled and I never got it back. Damn damn damn. A good deal of effort later I had seen a couple of Red Deer and nothing else. I decided it was time for a beer and packed up. As we reached Strontian I spotted predator eyes gleaming but it was a long-haired black domestic cat.
We had passed Resipole and were only half a mile outside Salen, halfway round a bend protected by Armco barrier when Maz shouted "Stop, stop! There's a Wildcat going under the barrier!" She had seen a striped haunch and a clearly, evenly ringed, broadly black-tipped tail sliding away under the grey wavy steel of the barrier.
I was stopped and out of the car with the spotlight in a second. I was up to the barrier with the light searching the gaps between the trees in only a couple more, but you can't give a Scottish Wildcat three seconds head start in woodland and expect to see it, and I found nothing. Now I really wanted that beer!
We had a pleasant drink at the hotel, then started back with me going slightly more slowly and giving more attention to the verges than the middle of the road. Maz thought this would improve my chances and I thought it worth trying, but the opposite argument is that going slightly faster I would have arrived at that bend earlier and that ruddy cat wouldn't have been slipping away under the barrier, it would have been in the middle of the road transfixed in the headlights! You pays your money and takes your choice: I had now been gripped off by Marion twice in one trip. Needless to say we arrived back home without any further adventures.
The bait was all still there and I didn't have to wait long before a male Pine Marten appeared. From inspection of the photos later, it was the winner of the previous night's fight, with his tail carefully combed over the bite he had received from his rival. He had also become a total Hollywood star overnight and happily wandered about picking up sandwich bites without a care for the flash going off every few seconds. By the end of the session (i.e. when he had eaten everything) I was taking head portraits rather than whole animal pictures.
I waited a few minutes to see whether any other martens would come in for the jam and peanut butter still smeared on the rocks, and heard a ruslting in the leaves. Oh good! To my surprise, however, what trundled into the light was not a Pine Marten but my first Hedgehog of the year. They are common on Ardnamurchan but given that we had snow falling at the start of the week and it still wasn't exactly shirtsleeve weather, I hadn't really expected to see one.
The black and white cat came through again and scooted when photographed. That closed the day apart from a couple of malts.
Friday 3 April
Last full day in the area. Rats. Could do with another week. Or month. Overnight a Hebrew Character had decided to roost by our front door. I nipped down to Srontian to replenish milk, bread and one or two other vitals. When I arrived, musing that I hadn't had a decent chance at a Hoodie all week, I found a habituated village Hooded Crow preening in a tree and got some decent shots of it.
A drive around the head of the loch got me some scenic snaps but no wildlife pics and the rest of the day passed rather relaxedly. We had done most of what we set out to do, and I was resigned to not getting Wildcat again.
We had an early dinner because I was keen to have another bash at the Resipole Otter before we headed to the Salen Hotel for our last night session. I was out along the shore before sunset and still only just in time: I had just reached the rocky outcrop beyond the boulders that I had previously picked out as the best available OP and scanned the coastline to find he was already only thirty or forty yards along and had just caught a fish.
He brought it out onto a rock and sat eating it whole as I took some rather silhouetty shots of him, the last showing just haunches and tail as the rest of him disappeared into a wave. He soon resurfaced and swam leisurely along towards me, coming up right opposite and less than twenty yards out.
He was clearly aware of me crouched low behind a rock with just camera and head visible, and regarded me with (I flatter myself) some interest but no alarm before continuing to dive for fish. He came up twice more quite close before continuing his patrol towards the camp site and I got some sharp but very dark pictures, that I need to do some work on before I can be really pleased with them: but it was a terrific sighting.
I skipped lightly back along the road to the cabin (three Red Deer were in the paddock just West of the site) in time to see the second of two bats drop out of the eaves from their roost (Maz had already had one) and flitter away to begin hunting the edge of the woods. Medium-sized and quite long-winged, I assume it was Natterer's.
Between Resipole and Salen we first had a Tawny Owl come up off the ground by the road side, presumably from/with a kill, then a second launched itself off telephone wires and glided away into the woods. We had a couple of beers with the locals and eventually returned for a Pine Marten watch. The bait was there when we reached home but we decided on a spot of supper and took our eyes off the ball - when we looked again it had all gone!
Saturday 4 April
Travelling day. The sky was crying for us - the weather was abysmal all the way down to the Lake District. Hoodies and a couple of Common Seals at Ardgour relieved a tedious journey.
Sunday 5 April
We had elected to drive down in the evening, which gave me time to run round the Lakes. I first visited the Golden Eagle at Haweswater, intending originally to go up onto the ridge and hopefully get pictures from his level, but my vertigo again beat me and I ended up watching him displaying from the RSPB watchpoint.
At midday I left there to move to Bassenthwaite (Dodd Wood) where I knocked off two Scotish specialities that had eluded me on Ardnamurchan: Red Squirrel and Osprey. I got decent pix of a squirrel and distant ones of Osprey: the upper viewpoint is excellent.
That would have been endex if Maz hadn't found a mouse in the house immediately on arrival home! It has since been evicted along with its mate - two ordinary Wood Mice.
Highlight scores:
Wildcat 2-0 to Marion
Pine Marten 3 (female and two males)
Otter 2 (ad unspecific and male)
White-tailed Eagle 2 (ad and first winter)
Golden Eagle 3 (2 ad male and one unspecific)
Iceland Gull (first winter)
Usual Hooded Crows, Black Guillemots, divers etc.
And a cracking good holiday as well!
John
Thursday 2 April
We had a number of reasons for popping over to Tobermory, so drove round to Kilchoan pier and arrived just as the ferry was docking. We parked quickly, grabbed what we thought we needed for the day (full Arctic gear for the ferry for a start) and went on board. It was sunny but a chilly wind ruled out sunbathing on the upper deck.
I didn't see all that many seabirds on the crossing, a Great Northern Diver being the pick of the bunch, but almost as soon as we arrived in Tobermory I found a first winter Iceland Gull loafing near a rocky breakwater. In the bright conditions my camera seemed to struggle but changing modes eventually cured that and I got some reasonable shots of it.
I found a second bird wheeling about with local Herring Gulls but couldn't quite nail it to species. It seemed broader winged and slightly heavier billed but the pattern wasn't clear cut as it would be on a Glaucous. It never came close and only appeared distantly at widely spaced intervals. It went down as either/or and two days later someone else reported two first winter Icelands.
Half of Tobermory was shut, wet paint signs abounded and the pottery no longer did the delightful, characterful cartoon-style wildcats Maz and I had been treating ourselves to after each sighting. Tracking down lunch involved enough patrolling up and down to give us a huge appetite - but not huge enough to pay £7.50 for pizza and chips.
In the end scallops and scampi from the pub near the Sea Life Surveys office were much appreciated. A cup of tea was also elusive, though we could probably have got one reasonably from the chip van by the pier.
Returning on the ferry we had several distant Black Guillemots but little else of note.
I had a second go at the Resipole Otter and thought I had him bang to rights when I picked him up working his way along towards me, with time to get down to a clump of boulders near the shore line for cover. Unfortunately the water was heavily ruffled by wind and he managed to slip past me unseen.
I picked him up again scanning widely and followed him back towards the camp site. He moved well out into the loch where he caught a fish, which was big enough that he brought it ashore to eat, right outside the site where the burn runs into the sea loch. I got a couple of shots of him, more silhouette than picture but quite distinctively an Otter.
Soon it was dark enough to be on our way not to the Basin, but the other way down past Strontian. For our last night's spotlighting I had decided to work the clear-felled slopes and wide heather moors of Glen Tarbert rather than leg it all the way to Cama nan Geall. We had a Tawny Owl glide across the road on the way, then it took me a couple of runs to find the car park I planned to spotlight from, but at last I was out fo the door and into action.
I found predator eyeshine up the slope immediately, but it ducked and the light wobbled and I never got it back. Damn damn damn. A good deal of effort later I had seen a couple of Red Deer and nothing else. I decided it was time for a beer and packed up. As we reached Strontian I spotted predator eyes gleaming but it was a long-haired black domestic cat.
We had passed Resipole and were only half a mile outside Salen, halfway round a bend protected by Armco barrier when Maz shouted "Stop, stop! There's a Wildcat going under the barrier!" She had seen a striped haunch and a clearly, evenly ringed, broadly black-tipped tail sliding away under the grey wavy steel of the barrier.
I was stopped and out of the car with the spotlight in a second. I was up to the barrier with the light searching the gaps between the trees in only a couple more, but you can't give a Scottish Wildcat three seconds head start in woodland and expect to see it, and I found nothing. Now I really wanted that beer!
We had a pleasant drink at the hotel, then started back with me going slightly more slowly and giving more attention to the verges than the middle of the road. Maz thought this would improve my chances and I thought it worth trying, but the opposite argument is that going slightly faster I would have arrived at that bend earlier and that ruddy cat wouldn't have been slipping away under the barrier, it would have been in the middle of the road transfixed in the headlights! You pays your money and takes your choice: I had now been gripped off by Marion twice in one trip. Needless to say we arrived back home without any further adventures.
The bait was all still there and I didn't have to wait long before a male Pine Marten appeared. From inspection of the photos later, it was the winner of the previous night's fight, with his tail carefully combed over the bite he had received from his rival. He had also become a total Hollywood star overnight and happily wandered about picking up sandwich bites without a care for the flash going off every few seconds. By the end of the session (i.e. when he had eaten everything) I was taking head portraits rather than whole animal pictures.
I waited a few minutes to see whether any other martens would come in for the jam and peanut butter still smeared on the rocks, and heard a ruslting in the leaves. Oh good! To my surprise, however, what trundled into the light was not a Pine Marten but my first Hedgehog of the year. They are common on Ardnamurchan but given that we had snow falling at the start of the week and it still wasn't exactly shirtsleeve weather, I hadn't really expected to see one.
The black and white cat came through again and scooted when photographed. That closed the day apart from a couple of malts.
Friday 3 April
Last full day in the area. Rats. Could do with another week. Or month. Overnight a Hebrew Character had decided to roost by our front door. I nipped down to Srontian to replenish milk, bread and one or two other vitals. When I arrived, musing that I hadn't had a decent chance at a Hoodie all week, I found a habituated village Hooded Crow preening in a tree and got some decent shots of it.
A drive around the head of the loch got me some scenic snaps but no wildlife pics and the rest of the day passed rather relaxedly. We had done most of what we set out to do, and I was resigned to not getting Wildcat again.
We had an early dinner because I was keen to have another bash at the Resipole Otter before we headed to the Salen Hotel for our last night session. I was out along the shore before sunset and still only just in time: I had just reached the rocky outcrop beyond the boulders that I had previously picked out as the best available OP and scanned the coastline to find he was already only thirty or forty yards along and had just caught a fish.
He brought it out onto a rock and sat eating it whole as I took some rather silhouetty shots of him, the last showing just haunches and tail as the rest of him disappeared into a wave. He soon resurfaced and swam leisurely along towards me, coming up right opposite and less than twenty yards out.
He was clearly aware of me crouched low behind a rock with just camera and head visible, and regarded me with (I flatter myself) some interest but no alarm before continuing to dive for fish. He came up twice more quite close before continuing his patrol towards the camp site and I got some sharp but very dark pictures, that I need to do some work on before I can be really pleased with them: but it was a terrific sighting.
I skipped lightly back along the road to the cabin (three Red Deer were in the paddock just West of the site) in time to see the second of two bats drop out of the eaves from their roost (Maz had already had one) and flitter away to begin hunting the edge of the woods. Medium-sized and quite long-winged, I assume it was Natterer's.
Between Resipole and Salen we first had a Tawny Owl come up off the ground by the road side, presumably from/with a kill, then a second launched itself off telephone wires and glided away into the woods. We had a couple of beers with the locals and eventually returned for a Pine Marten watch. The bait was there when we reached home but we decided on a spot of supper and took our eyes off the ball - when we looked again it had all gone!
Saturday 4 April
Travelling day. The sky was crying for us - the weather was abysmal all the way down to the Lake District. Hoodies and a couple of Common Seals at Ardgour relieved a tedious journey.
Sunday 5 April
We had elected to drive down in the evening, which gave me time to run round the Lakes. I first visited the Golden Eagle at Haweswater, intending originally to go up onto the ridge and hopefully get pictures from his level, but my vertigo again beat me and I ended up watching him displaying from the RSPB watchpoint.
At midday I left there to move to Bassenthwaite (Dodd Wood) where I knocked off two Scotish specialities that had eluded me on Ardnamurchan: Red Squirrel and Osprey. I got decent pix of a squirrel and distant ones of Osprey: the upper viewpoint is excellent.
That would have been endex if Maz hadn't found a mouse in the house immediately on arrival home! It has since been evicted along with its mate - two ordinary Wood Mice.
Highlight scores:
Wildcat 2-0 to Marion
Pine Marten 3 (female and two males)
Otter 2 (ad unspecific and male)
White-tailed Eagle 2 (ad and first winter)
Golden Eagle 3 (2 ad male and one unspecific)
Iceland Gull (first winter)
Usual Hooded Crows, Black Guillemots, divers etc.
And a cracking good holiday as well!
John
Last edited:
JWN Andrewes
Poor Judge of Pasta.
Are you quite sure?!!!
Sounds like a good trip (specially for Maz). Will you be back up for another crack at the moggies this year or will that be it?
James
Tree Sparrow
Well-known member
Shame you didn't get a wildcat.
A great read, I almost feel as if I've had a holiday myself.
TS
A great read, I almost feel as if I've had a holiday myself.
TS
Superb John, though I have to say I am chuckling no end at the wife screeching cat twice and still you didn't get onto to it 
Up at this end, not much to report on the mammal front - my beavers are being right gits, chewing the entire forest down. Otherwise, one Raccoon Dog pattering across the last ice a week or so back, plus a few Roe Deer here and there.
Up at this end, not much to report on the mammal front - my beavers are being right gits, chewing the entire forest down. Otherwise, one Raccoon Dog pattering across the last ice a week or so back, plus a few Roe Deer here and there.
Farnboro John
Well-known member
I'm not sure. With Finland, Scilly and early next year India all to come out of one leave year, I shall have to be a bit careful: but I would still like to have another go...
John
Farnboro John
Well-known member
To bring matters up to date:
During the awful wet Easter those of us in the South East endured, Clare and I trotted off to look for Midwife Toads, with a conspicuous lack of success. Our fallback for the day was Little Brickhill woods and we did much better there, with 7 Chinese Water Deer and 6 Muntjac providing hours of entertainment and a few photos. Unfortunately we didn't find any black Grey Squirrels although there were quite a few normal ones.
Last night I was down by the canal playing with my finally-arrived new Batbox IIID. It basically allowed me to confirm what I more or less knew already: plenty of Noctules scorching about high up, a couple of Serotines along the wooded parts of the canal and other woodland edges, a few Soprano Pipistrelles doing much the same as the Serotines and of course a load of Daubenton's Bats doing Exocet impressions over the water surface. It isn't half a lot of fun listening to these weird noises coming out of the dark at you and I will need a lot of practice to get good at it. There were some weird noises I wasn't by any means sure about but I am going to stick to what I can work out for certain until the easy stuff is absolutely firm in my mind. Hours of fun for all the family....
John
During the awful wet Easter those of us in the South East endured, Clare and I trotted off to look for Midwife Toads, with a conspicuous lack of success. Our fallback for the day was Little Brickhill woods and we did much better there, with 7 Chinese Water Deer and 6 Muntjac providing hours of entertainment and a few photos. Unfortunately we didn't find any black Grey Squirrels although there were quite a few normal ones.
Last night I was down by the canal playing with my finally-arrived new Batbox IIID. It basically allowed me to confirm what I more or less knew already: plenty of Noctules scorching about high up, a couple of Serotines along the wooded parts of the canal and other woodland edges, a few Soprano Pipistrelles doing much the same as the Serotines and of course a load of Daubenton's Bats doing Exocet impressions over the water surface. It isn't half a lot of fun listening to these weird noises coming out of the dark at you and I will need a lot of practice to get good at it. There were some weird noises I wasn't by any means sure about but I am going to stick to what I can work out for certain until the easy stuff is absolutely firm in my mind. Hours of fun for all the family....
John
Farnboro John
Well-known member
I ventured onto the RSPB website and established pretty well beyond doubt that the 1st winter WTE at Camas nan Geall was Breagha (and I can now spell it).
John
John
JWN Andrewes
Poor Judge of Pasta.
But can you pronounce it?
James
James
Farnboro John
Well-known member
But can you pronounce it?
James
I have a rough idea thanks to the locals who first put the idea in my head. Phonetically it seems to come out as bray-aa.
John
Farnboro John
Well-known member
Just realised I haven't done the weekend update yet.
I had a day out at Fowlmere on Saturday. It was bright weather but windy- not ideal for small mammals and in fact I had a thin time with them. Bits of the day were brightened up by two Muntjac, two Fallow Deer, several Rabbits and a Grey Squirrel that plastered itself to a branch in its efforts to conceal itself from me. Not a native mammal among them you will notice!
Mid-afternoon I finally connected with a Water Shrew, which was what the day was supposed to be about. I saw it three times in the chalk stream along the south-west side of the reserve for a total of about five seconds viewing. Obviously no pix.
Other highlights were a Grass Snake and two small (one small, one tiny) Pike all swimming in the watercress spring, all of which I got pictures of.
Driving home I was passing Baldock on the glorious bypass when a Weasel ran like a clockwork toy right across the carriageway in front of me.
John
I had a day out at Fowlmere on Saturday. It was bright weather but windy- not ideal for small mammals and in fact I had a thin time with them. Bits of the day were brightened up by two Muntjac, two Fallow Deer, several Rabbits and a Grey Squirrel that plastered itself to a branch in its efforts to conceal itself from me. Not a native mammal among them you will notice!
Mid-afternoon I finally connected with a Water Shrew, which was what the day was supposed to be about. I saw it three times in the chalk stream along the south-west side of the reserve for a total of about five seconds viewing. Obviously no pix.
Other highlights were a Grass Snake and two small (one small, one tiny) Pike all swimming in the watercress spring, all of which I got pictures of.
Driving home I was passing Baldock on the glorious bypass when a Weasel ran like a clockwork toy right across the carriageway in front of me.
John
